The drive to test develop solid state laser architectures for space-based remote sensing has been pursued at NASA since the launch of the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) in 1996. MOLA employed a diode pumped Nd:YAG oscillator-only cavity for mapping the martian surface with a laser developed by what was then MacDonnell Douglas Inc. This crossed-retro surface cavity design fulfilled its full science mission but was limited in lifetime due to the relatively new technology of high power pulsed laser diode arrays at the time. Since then, laser diode array technology has progressed such that they are no longer the limiting factor in flight lasers, but have been replaced by the full laser system “design” that must be qualified and proven to be reliable in space. NASA has actively pursued the progression of risk reduction of such systems for space applications, while improving the lifetime and efficiency. For example, the use of corner cubes, or retro-reflectors, as laser cavity and mirrors demonstrate excellent stability for such extreme environments, but the inherent multimode beam quality is often too “noisy” for modern science measurements with high pointing jitter and shot-to-shot intensity variations. Thus, TEM00 beams are now needed for state-of-the-art, high resolution planetary and Earth science altimetry.